PC60 -how long print lasts without laminating??advice please

[Alex Pirozek]

Prints will normally last 3-5 years, i printed black on clear for some wheel stickers and it was the vinyl that gave up after 4 years. These printers have there uses and limitations. I would not normally print anything larger that 150mm square in spot or CMYK on these as it’s too expensive and hit and miss on quality.
Great for small stickers with the metallic range of colours.

[Nick.Eales]

Thanks, I think a versacamm would suit my needs better but they are a bit more than what I want to spend to ‘test’ the water with??, in your opinion, is the print quality/uses of the PC60 ok for an entry/starter level or should I try and stretch for something different?? Nick

[David-Foster-]

What is your budget Nick? I can’t really help you on this but my gut feeling on ‘testing’ the water is that the market is saturated with cheap sticker makers on ebay etc. You have to offer something new to stand out now. Roland have got a new £5k model out at the moment that is exactly what you are looking for I think.

[Gavin MacMillan]

I would say it’s not a good machine to test the water. It is a great machine at what it does but that’s it. It’s not a full colour printer that will pump stuff out all day… well it might but you wont get anyone to pay for it. It’s a totally different beast to wide format printers so you would not be testing the same market as a versacamm would suit, you would be able to do SMALL badges and small labels and stuff with metalics, it’s great for all that.

[Nick.Eales]

Budget???? 5K would be my max I reckon?, as I would’nt want an expensive machine sitting in the corner gathering dust!! My main business is SMART Repairs/Window Tinting & Frosting. It’s just we get asked an awful lot for sign livery and vehicle graphics off the back of what we do, so I would like to get something that would fulfill this need but with the option of expanding out into different markets if need be?….is something like the versacamm a better option or there other printers that could do the job? although we already have a cutter I would want print and cut really? Nick

[Nick.Eales]

quote David-Foster-:

What is your budget Nick? I can’t really help you on this but my gut feeling on ‘testing’ the water is that the market is saturated with cheap sticker makers on ebay etc. You have to offer something new to stand out now. Roland have got a new £5k model out at the moment that is exactly what you are looking for I think.

Thanks David, what is that Roland model??

[David-Foster-]

It’s the BN-20, it is on the front page on this site, sign extra. I think it’s for your budget £5k, its only 500mm not 620mm though.

[Nick.Eales]

quote David-Foster-:

It’s the BN-20, it is on the front page on this site, sign extra. I think it’s for your budget £5k, its only 500mm not 620mm though.

It does look fantastic for what I need but I think a little restrictive if I need larger widths for van livery etc..Our cutter is 1220 but I I reckon majority of stuff we do is in only 610mm but 500mm might be too small!!..I think by the sounds of it a second user versacamm is going to be better than a pc60/600 for what I need??

[Alex Pirozek]

If 500mm of the BN-20 is too small then the PC60/ or PC600 will not be any good to you. Even though they are 24" the max print width is around 20" but not economical to run at this width at all.
As others have said you will be better off looking for a good secondhand SP300 etc type of printer if you have the room for it.

[Robert Lambie]

i would steer far from the PC60, in this day there are far better investments to be made on second hand models of the likes of the versacamm. For a start, Roland no longer manufacture the machine parts for these printers.
as for unlaminated prints… i wouldnt give a "vehicle" print anymore than 3 months life, out on the road.

Personally, i wouldnt buy a second hand printer unless i knew allot about them and how to maintain and do general repairs on them. warranty, training etc all play a big part in a machine purchase like this.
being a newbie, no matter what you do i would advise on buying whatever you go for from a reputable supplier. even second hand if this is the route you still go…

for general sign work, getting into this line of things, i would still give allot of thought to the likes of the VersaSTUDIO. buy from a Roland supplier with the prospect of upgrading in your first year to a versacamm and see what deal you can thrash out. at the end of the day, a brand new versacamm is gonna cost you £50 per week, your machine will cover that and some, on your first couple of metres printing.

[Rodney Gold]

I echo Robert’s sentiments , apart from anything else , the cost to print on these machines is horrendous – almost 10x the price of an inkjet and the print quality what with dropouts and banding can often be substantially worse — colours like metallics have a terrible outdoor life as well. We just actually dumped a working pc60/600 and a pc 50 – not even worth keeping any of em as cutters (they slow)

[Nick.Eales]

quote Robert Lambie:

i would steer far from the PC60, in this day there are far better investments to be made on second hand models of the likes of the versacamm. For a start, Roland no longer manufacture the machine parts for these printers.
as for unlaminated prints… i wouldnt give a “vehicle” print anymore than 3 months life, out on the road.

Personally, i wouldnt buy a second hand printer unless i knew allot about them and how to maintain and do general repairs on them. warranty, training etc all play a big part in a machine purchase like this.
being a newbie, no matter what you do i would advise on buying whatever you go for from a reputable supplier. even second hand if this is the route you still go…

for general sign work, getting into this line of things, i would still give allot of thought to the likes of the VersaSTUDIO. buy from a Roland supplier with the prospect of upgrading in your first year to a versacamm and see what deal you can thrash out. at the end of the day, a brand new versacamm is gonna cost you £50 per week, your machine will cover that and some, on your first couple of metres printing.

Chaps, thanks for your advice and thoughts…On reflection, I think maybe the versastudio is the sensible way forward and then look to upgrade to versacamm as and when possible, think I will steer clear of a PC60/600 although I am tempted to try and privately get a second user versacamm from the off!!…